With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, we can now turn our attention to the first signs of fall: leaves changing, pumpkin spice cropping up in everything, and of course, more TV premieres than any one person could possibly be expected to keep up with.
This season is shaping up to be a doozy, with plenty of returning favorites gearing up for one final run and some promising new series that range from a gritty hip-hop biopic to an animated time-travel saga. To help sift through it all, we’ve put together a guide to all the fall premiere dates worth your attention. Set your DVRs accordingly.
Wednesday, Sept. 4
Wu-Tang: An American Saga (Hulu)
This Hulu miniseries about the origins of the Wu-Tang Clan has the distinction of coming straight from the source: the show is created by RZA, and he and Method Man both serve as executive producers. The 10-part drama, which was co-created by Alex Tse (Watchmen, SuperFly), stars Moonlight‘s Ashton Sanders as RZA and Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Raekwon.
Friday, Sept. 6:
The Spy (Netflix)
Sacha Baron Cohen takes a dramatic turn as Israel’s top Mossad spy, Eli Cohen, in this six-part miniseries on Netflix. Written and directed by Homeland co-creator Gideon Raff, The Spy chronicles Cohen’s years as an undercover agent in Syria as he’s torn between his family and his obligations to his country.
Monday, Sept. 9:
The Deuce (HBO)
We last saw them in 1977, but the third and final season of David Simon’s The Deuce jumps ahead and finds our favorite characters in 1985, with a newfangled device called the VCR (remember those?) set to revolutionize the porn industry by allowing people to jerk off in the comfort of their own homes. With other ’80s issues like the rise of HIV and the cocaine epidemic, there’s a lot for the series to tackle in its home stretch.
Friday, Sept. 13:
Undone (Amazon)
Amazon’s new series from the creators of BoJack Horseman is the first episodic TV show to use rotoscopic animation. It follows Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar) as she deals with the aftermath of a near-fatal car accident that left her with the ability to travel through space and time and attempts to use her newfound powers to go back and prevent the death of her father, Jacob (Bob Odenkirk).
Sunday, Sept. 15:
Country Music (PBS)
He’s already tackled Baseball (1994) and Jazz (2001), and now Ken Burns will try his hand at chronicling another uniquely American art form with Country Music. The famed documentarian’s latest, which is broken up into eight parts and runs for a total of 16 hours, traces the evolution of the genre and features interviews with legends like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn.
Wednesday, Sept. 18:
American Horror Story: 1984 (FX)
The ninth season of Ryan Murphy’s spooky anthology series pays homage to the iconic slasher flicks of the ’80s with big hair, summer camp settings and of course, a whole lot of murder. It’s the first season of the show without Sarah Paulson, but as EW reports, “nothing is ruled out” when it comes to a possible cameo. But as the show says goodbye to Paulson, it welcomes one interesting newcomer: Olympic freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy.
Monday, Sept. 23:
Prodigal Son (Fox)
The elevator pitch for this show was probably something along the lines of “Criminal Minds meets Silence of the Lambs,” and while that may not sound enticing on its own, it’s the cast that makes this new Fox series about a profiler who seeks out the advice of his estranged serial-killer dad to catch a copycat interesting. Michael Sheen stars as the notorious murderer (nicknamed “The Surgeon”), The Walking Dead‘s Tom Payne plays his criminal psychologist son and Lou Diamond Phillips portrays the NYPD detective who enlists their help.
Tuesday, Sept. 24:
This Is Us (NBC)
Your favorite weekly sobfest is back, and based on the Season 4 teaser, it looks like it’s bringing along a ton of new characters. This Is Us will no doubt still predominantly revolve around the Pearson clan, but the teaser — in which Rebecca (Mandy Moore) muses about how “a complete stranger can become such a big part of your story” — features plenty of new faces. There’s a soldier, a waitress, and yes, M. Night Shyamalan. We have no idea how they all fit in, but we’re willing to bet it’ll tug at the ol’ heartstrings.
Mixed-ish (ABC)
ABC’s new spinoff of Black-ish tells the story of Johnson family matriarch Rainbow’s childhood, chronicling her and her siblings’ experiences as they transition from growing up in a cult to attending school in the suburbs in the ’80s and coming to terms with their mixed-race identity. The show will also feature an original theme song penned and performed by none other than Mariah Carey.
Wednesday, Sept. 25:
The Masked Singer (NBC)
NBC’s surprise hit, in which celebrities don elaborate disguises and sing while judges and viewers attempt to figure out who they are, feels a little like a bizarre fever dream at times, but it’s fun to piece together clues from each performance and get sucked into the mystery. Now it’s back for Season 2, and the costumes are even more absurd. (Can we talk about how deeply weird it is that the Egg is wearing a hat made of a fried egg? How is that different than if Kelly Clarkson came out on American Idol wearing Justin Guarini’s corpse on her head?)
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (FXX)
When It’s Always Sunny‘s 14th season premieres this month, it’ll make history, tying the record for longest-running live-action sitcom of all time. (It’ll share the honor with The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which aired from 1952 to 1966.) There’s no word yet on what we can expect from the gang at Paddy’s this season, but if last year’s surprisingly touching finale “Mac Finds His Pride” is any indication, the show’s still at the top of its game.
Stumptown (ABC)
Based on the graphic novels of the same name, the Portland-based Stumptown follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders), a down-on-her-luck Marine veteran who becomes a private investigator to pay her bills and support her disabled brother. Jake Johnson (New Girl) plays her bartender friend Grey McConnell, and Michael Ealy stars as Detective Miles Hoffman, her contact at the police department.
Thursday, Sept. 26:
The Good Place (NBC)
One could argue that the fact that this will be The Good Place‘s final season is proof that we are, in fact, living in the Bad Place, but the Michael Schur sitcom is likely to go out on a high note. Will Chidi, Eleanor, Tahani and Jason ever make it to the real Good Place? Can Eleanor and Chidi overcome his erased memory and fall in love again? Hopefully the show’s final days answer more questions than they pose.
Friday, Sept. 27:
Transparent (Amazon)
Rather than a traditional multi-episode season, Transparent‘s finale is taking the form of one feature-length musical, fittingly titled Musicale Finale. It’ll focus on the Pfefferman family — particularly Judith Light’s Shelly — who are reeling from titular matriarch Maura’s death. (Jeffrey Tambor was fired from the series in 2018 after two sexual harassment allegations were made against him, and will not appear in the finale.)
The Politician (Netflix)
We’ve seen the “precocious teen with ruthless ambition” trope before in everything from Election to Rushmore, but Ryan Murphy’s The Politican — the first product of his massive $300 million, five-year production deal with Netflix — looks to be another solid entry in the genre. It follows Payton Hobart (Ben Platt) as he runs for class president and features performances from the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow, Zoey Deutsch and Jessica Lange. Netflix must be impressed; they already picked it up for a second season.
Sunday, Oct. 6:
Mr. Robot (USA)
Hot on the heels of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rami Malek returns for one last season as Elliot Alderson, and while we don’t exactly know what he’s up to in the trailer, it’s clear that it’s no good. “What you’re about to do is crossing a line,” Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) warns him before Elliot responds, “It’s a little late for that, don’t you think?”
The Walking Dead (AMC)
It’s hard to believe that AMC’s zombie series is entering its 10th season (insert dumb joke about it being undead here). But this year will feature one major development: Danai Gurira, who plays Michonne, has confirmed that this season will be her last. Thora Birch joins the cast this year as Gamma, a member of the Whisperers.
Wednesday, Oct. 9:
Riverdale (The CW)
Season 3 of Riverdale went totally off the rails — so much so that it ended with the core four making a pact to just chill out and have a normal senior year. (Somehow Archie being mauled by a grizzly bear and being forced into a teen fight club in jail don’t even crack the top-five craziest things about their junior year.) But as we can see from a flash-forward, that doesn’t last long, and Season 4 of the hit series will apparently feature Betty, Veronica and Archie burning Jughead’s beanie while covered in blood, vowing to go their separate ways, lest they be implicated in … what, exactly? It seems unlikely that Jughead would be killed off, but we’ll just have to tune in to find out.
Rhythm + Flow (Netflix)
Produced by John Legend and featuring Chance the Rapper, Cardi B and T.I. as judges, Rhythm + Flow seeks to find the next great rapper, scouring the country for the best aspiring hip-hop artists. The first four episodes are slated to drop Oct. 9th, while the next batch will be released on Oct. 16th before the series wraps on Oct. 23rd.
Friday, Oct. 18:
Modern Love (Amazon)
Based on the New York Times column of the same name, Amazon’s new anthology series will reportedly take a look at “love in its multitude of forms — including sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, and self-love.” The eight-episode season features a star-studded cast that includes Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, John Slattery, Dev Patel, Andy Garcia and Catherine Keener.
Sunday, Oct. 20:
Watchmen (HBO)
Few details have been released about Damon Lindelof’s series based on the beloved graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, which Lindelof describes as a “remix” of the source material. But one thing’s for certain: it’s got a stacked cast. Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Tim Blake Nelson and Don Johnson are all slated to star, and the show will reportedly feature a score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Sunday, Oct. 27:
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Silicon Valley‘s sixth and final season will be a short one — just seven episodes — but it looks to be headed towards a fitting conclusion, with Pied Piper’s Richard offering some hilariously clumsy testimony before Congress about the security of user data. Fans of executive producer/showrunner Alec Berg need not fret, however; he’ll still be at HBO working on Barry after Silicon Valley wraps.
Sunday, Nov. 17:
The Crown (Netflix)
Netflix’s popular royal family drama features an all-new cast this season as the show makes a jump in time and Olivia Colman assumes the role of Queen Elizabeth II. She’ll be joined by Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret and Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip, and while not much else is known about the third season just yet, we do have our first glimpse of Colman as queen below.
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